Back to Brixton

[smokingboot]

27 years ago and more, I was a Brixton girl. I recall walking through the riots unscathed, I recall Nelson Mandela and Prince Charles, swarms of heavily moustachedSanFran clones like a river of shiny billiard balls queueing at the Fridge, fabulous gigs at the Academy. I remember the market, where you could buy gourds or fish or often unidentifiable fruit and veg or hoodoo supplies, while buskers played to the smell of weed all along Electric Avenue. It was poor but very cool. You had to be careful in Summer though, because the traffic down at the centre of Brixton was permanently log-jammed, and the air was pure exhaust, the kind of atmosphere in which people get testy. Stuff happened.Crime was never far away.

I wrote two poems about Brixton, and both were true, though neither were good.

Madiba
1996 I remember Brixton:
loud shirts, pineapple punch and African hats,
people trying to run and hug at the same time
Never seen so many smiles in one place.

With you was a prince; they didn’t care.
His was a poor star for all they knew
You were their king, and the drums were singing
Sun in the heart of Brixton town

Me, I danced on a crowded road
With a troop of rastas higher than kites.
‘76 reading ‘Cry the Beloved Country.’
‘96, no-one cried anymore

**

One Day
One day I saw
a woman at a Brixton bus stop.
She pulled out a knife,
And stabbed the man in front of her.
The police came as the man flowed
all his claret on the pavement
meanwhile the woman sat down
eating her sandwich.
She was black and he was white
But she said that didn't matter
She was just a killer
tired of waiting for the bus.

New Brixton though, wow. We went there last night, and it was a revelation. Though I've popped down there many times over the years, I inevitably meet friends and get ensconced in one place before the gig or whatever. I haven't gone to the market for a very long time, and never after dark - it was just not a good idea. Now the place lights up with restaurants of every kind, there's neon and graffiti that's become art, and loads of people hanging out spending a lot of money on nice food and drink and clothes. And the weed is still there, the music still plays, and the hoodoo shop still sells interesting supplies straight from the heart of Port Au Prince.

'Brixton,' I say, 'You're looking well, are you quite comfortable in your middle age?'

'I'm fine these days, very fine,' Brixton tells me, with a smile and a wink 'And you too, girl? You too.'

Comments

[mallorys_camera]

I feel the same way whenever I visit the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly Berkeley where I spent my long-ago partying and protesting.

It's changed. Man, has it changed.

[smokingboot]

I have only visited San Francisco once for a few days, and never been to Berkeley at all. We had just escaped from L.A, and San Francisco was so different, with its curious weather and classy cool edge! I was a very happy tourist, could have stayed there a long time. Missed those years when y'all set the world alight. I would like to have seen that.